These articles saved me I hope they can be of some use to you too. This article (from 2009) over at MacYourself is one of the most complete descriptions I’ve seen this 2007 article at MacOSX Tips is nearly as complete and adds some more thoughts too. (Replace admin with your administrator user’s short username.) When I did this, I found that if you waited too long after doing the command sh /etc/rc, then the system would take away your prompt. You should eventually get a root prompt:Īt this prompt, type in these three commands (terminated with a return, of course): The screen should go black, and white writing commences – kernel messages. Start your MacOS X 10.4 system, and at the gray screen hit (and hold) Cmd-S to enter single user mode. (In fact, Leopard and Snow Leopard can too – it’s just more complicated.) (This is why nearly all security professionals say, If you’ve physical access to the box, it’s over.) In most cases, resetting a password just requires physical access to the machine and a reboot. Enter the new password (it does not appear on screen). Replace username by the name of the desired user account.

Restart the Mac in Single User Mode and run the following commands: Type sh /etc/rc / and press Enter. In my case, the PowerPC Mac Mini that runs MacOS X Tiger has a bad DVD drive. The procedure is slightly different for Mac OS X 10.4 ( Tiger ). The problem is what to do when you have no disk – or it is too inconvenient to get it.

Reset the password of the old account from the Users & Groups preference pane. Go through the steps of creating a new account. A third way is to create a new admin account: Hold command-S on startup. This is the most commonly referred to option, with a lot of high-quality instructions available via Google. Select the volume and account and reset the password. Resetting the MacOS X Tiger administrator password can be done by booting with the Installation Disk, and selecting the appropriate menu option.

Macos forgot admin password